August r, 188S.] 
TM fi. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
01 
appliance. As I have said, I disbelieve that the fall in 
quality is as great or so general as some brokers 
would have us believe. Whatever falling-off there is, 
is I think due to excessive drough 1 , but it takes a 
very prolonged drought before the quality on the 
higher estates is affected. It is the knowledge that 
Ceylon estates vary so much, all through the year, 
ill their climate, elevation and periods of pruning, 
that, apart from my own experience, makes me 
sceptical of any marked simultaneouN change in 
quality all over the island. Other things equal, 
fine weather teas are better than wet weather ones, 
but the difference is in appearance chiefly, the 
wet weather tea being rod and flat, for the liquor 
remains much the same. In making this state- 
ment, I do not, of course, include the extremes 
of drought or continued pouring rains. One of 
our tea essayists (Mr. Armstrong, I think) has 
said that good tea is made in the field, and the 
more experience I get, the more am I convinced 
that it is so. The factor towards a good tea is 
the condition of the bush. Fine teas are not to be 
made soon after pruning, or when the bush 
has run too long after pruning, this latter 
period varying with jilt, elevation and soil. Nor is 
a good tea to be had from leaf plucked from 
thin wiry shoots or off bushes which are a mass 
of blossom, but given a vigorous good jiit bush 
about, say, 7 months from pruning, and nothing 
but deliberate mistreatment in pluoking and 
manufacture will prevent you making an ordinary 
good tea at any season of the year, save during 
the extremes above mentioned. Just as I was 
about to end up, having had my say, I see Mr. 
Rutherford's letter iu your issue of rfrd, which 
necessitates an addition to this already too lengthy 
contribution. Firstly, let me direct Mr. Ruther- 
ford's attention to an apparent contradiction con- 
tained iii his letter. He says : " With regard to 
the falling-off in the quality of our teas, Mr. J. 
Forbes is, I think, right in entirely attributing this 
to the season," Mr. Forbes, however, did not at- 
tribute it to season per se, but to the imperfect 
manufacture when a rush of leaf came in, just the 
very accusation which Mr. Rutherford has, on the 
authority of Messrs. W. J. & H. Thompson, such 
natural satisfaction in contradicting. Mr. Ruther- 
ford will be relieved to hear that my remark, "At 
the present prices paid for our toas, I do not 
boliovo that the enterprise, as a whole, is making any ■ 
profit whatever," meant literally what I said, 
prices at the time, not the year's average. I myself 
cannot soe what harm it can do the enterprise to 
give an opinion less sanguine than that of some 
others as to the cost ot producing our teas. No 
doubt fewer people will care to buy and open 
land if they think the cost of production is to be 
Bd and the selling price lOd than would have boon 
tin: ca.se had they thought the ligures would be 
7d and Is respectively, but the fewer people who 
open land, the bettor the chance of the enter- 
prise remaining profitable. The present position is 
a sorious one, and my original letter was written 
in tho hope that one depressing influonoe might 
bo abated, and it is just as well to let the trade 
know that tho average quality of our tea is un- 
likely to be othor than it is, and that if prices 
arc forced down much lower, but few growors will 
mako any profit, and our 10 millions will cost 
more to produoe than our friends tho brokers will 
hand us as piouods of sales. — Yours faithfully, 
THOS. NORTH OHRISTIlfl. 
OK) LuN TKA : YlUTlOISM OF LONDON 
BROKERS' CIRCULARS. 
St. Ilolior's, Ambagamuwa, Nth July 1888. 
Dftlft Sir,— Tho writer of Messrs. Ruokor & 
Uonciaft'a Weekly Toa Ciroular ul June Ulh 
must have been very ill when he drew up that 
statement. Why it should be the fashion amongst 
numerous firms in the tea trade to continually 
damn with faint praise and to do all they oan 
to prevent Ceylon increasing its output, points to 
the one conclusion thai these firms must be largely 
interested in China tea, and unable to shake off 
their Hankow connections. The prayer of the 
whole circular is, — for goodness sake don't interfere 
with our 3£d congous, or, if you do, " the greater 
output will be tho greater loss, not profit." If 
you oust our 3£d congous, " there will be little 
profit to the planter, and precious little to the 
consumer." 
This is one admission that the present China 
congous afford precious littlo pleasure to the con- 
sumer. So far so good ; and the sooner these 50 
millions per annum of oongou rubbish are ousted, 
the better. 
From beginning to end the circular is dead 
against quantity from Ceylon (there is no ob- 
jection made to quantity from China), and the 
conclusion is that Messrs. Ruoker & Bencraft must 
have a big thing in China congous, which are 
admitted by them to be next door to rubbish. 
ALFRED SCOVELL. 
PLANTING AND MANURING. 
Tulliar, Devikulam, South India, 5th July 1888. 
Sjr, — I humbly beg you to give me your opinion 
on the following heads : — 
Planting. — It is generally said that in planting 
cinchona, putting in the plant, so that any portion 
of the stem goes into tho ground -commonly called 
deep planting, renders the plant subjeot to canker, 
and death eventually. 1 wish to know whether it is 
so with coffee or not, and if a tender plant put in 
with good three inches of the stem into the ground, 
will do equally well with another not planted deep. 
Manuring.— How to best use oattle manure for 
coffee? Put in a pit in the centre of evey four trees, 
or above every tree, it does not feed all the latteral 
roots of the tree, and therefore cannot produoe the 
desired effect. Forking up the soil, where it is soft 
and tho slope moderate, with the manure spread on 
the surfaoe, so that tho manure gets buried at a depth 
from three to nine inches all over the ground, seems 
to be a good method. — I am, your most obedient 
servant, S. JACOB. 
[Let our correspondent invest in a copy of the 
"Coffee Planter's Manual" he will lind advertised 
in the T. A., for the information he requires, and 
much more. — Ed.J 
CEYLON TEA NOT " KEEPING." 
9th July 1888. 
Dear Sin, — In my reoent reply to a "Buyer" 
I gave four reasons why I declined to "patronize" 
tho local market : one of whioh was that I ob- 
jected to having all my cases opened in Colombo 
for samples during the south-west monsoon. 
Now, it is very evident to me that our Ceylon 
tea is a very delioate article, and will not bear 
the rough treatment to which it is subjected in 
Colombo and in London. Granted, that its keep- 
ing qualities can be improved by slower and more 
thorough firing, and also, I think, by harder 
rolling, all our processes are too rapidly got through, 
yet is it necessary to check the unfair usage it 
gets in England itself. The planter is most care- 
ful to pack his toas in lead-lined, hermetically 
scaled packages, hot and dry from the firing ; in 
less than a month, even if it escapes injury from 
the damp of Colombo, it is ruthlessly opened and 
turned out in London, and never soldered down 
again. It is exposed, thonoeforward, to tho Eng- 
li h climate, unprotooted. until it reaches the gop 
